<div style="font-size:12px;"><div style="padding: 5px; width: 130px; height: 130px;float:left"><img src="http://www.freebase.com/api/trans/image_thumb/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000004a72672?maxheight=120&amp;maxwidth=120"></div><b>Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci</b> was a prominent Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician and writer. The illegitimate son of a notary, Messer Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina, Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, "da Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."</div>